Disney World

We went to Disney World the week before Thanksgiving. We met Tony, Allie, AJ and Adeline there and everyone had a great time. The parks were empty the first three days and we were able to walk onto all the rides. Nick felt jipped not being able to use all the fast passes he ran around collecting. It was definitely more crowded on the weekend and we put the fast passes to use. It was so fun to see Laci's reaction to the characters and princesses. The boys couldn't care less for this kind of stuff but Laci loved it. She also loved Tony's family. She pretty much dropped Nick and I like hot rocks and wanted to spend every waking minute with "my Tony" and "Adeline's mommy." She couldn't quite get the name Allie down. They held her, pushed her in her stroller (by request, of course) and she would break out into tears when we went our separate ways to sleep. Nick got a bit jealous of "the other man" in her life. Drew reached a milestone in his life that week. He was tall enough to ride Tower of Terror and Splash Mountain for the first time. He was freaked out. It was so funny. Tower is a scary ride for a 4 year old. Here are a lot pictures in totally random order: Lunch at Cinderella's Castle

Look at Drew's cute, terrified face on Splash Mtn. Bret and AJ took a little nap

The boys

Drew cuddling with his new gun

Laci hugging Daisy

Laci and Marie, this was the stuffed animal she picked as a souvenir...a smaller version, of course

The tallest onion volcano I've ever seen

Epcot

Laci and Minnie

Laci and Belle

Laci (with Snow White's kiss print on her cheek) and Ariel

Laci and Snow White

Bret getting a little love from Ariel

Castle

Magic Kingdom

Mount Everest, Bret and Cole's favorite ride, in the background

Laci and AJ

Tree of Life at Animal Kingdom

Laci doing her Dori lips

Kids after the African Safari

Chocolate Outhouses

Grandma was here for a few days and when Grandma is here, the kiddos always have fun. One thing she did with the kids was make gross, spooky chocolate outhouses. She's done this with the other cousins for a few years, but this is the first time my kids have made them. They loved it.

Laci

Little Laci turned two. Oh, how those two years have flown! It seems like yesterday that we finally had our little girl and now we can't imagine life without her. We love this spunky little thing. And, she is little. When I took her for her check up, she weighed in at 24 1/2 pounds, the 21st percentile for her age...so different than her brothers, who have always been in the 90th percentile. On the big day, we went to a pumpkin patch that had lots of fun stuff for the kids. They all loved the pillow bounce. Even Bret, who is usually too cool, liked it.

She loved the slide, especially head first.

The corn box

Tractor ride

Pillow Bounce

Bret taking Laci on the big slide.

Her new favorite doll. She loves to feed it and change diapers.

Laci got a Rapunzel costume from Grandma. She loves it and says, "Let down my hair" when she puts it on.

Bret

Bret is a decade old now...I can't believe it! He had a birthday party at the Outer Zone, a laser tag place. There were about 10 boys that came and they all had a good time. The highlight of the night for Bret was winning a cell phone from one of the arcade games. It was one of those games that seems impossible to win, but with a little skill and a lot of luck he got the phone. He couldn't stop talking about it. So, whether I like it or not, my 10 year old has his own phone.

Bret played tackle football for the first time this fall and looked so grown up and man-like in his helmet and pads. He enjoyed the games, but didn't like having to do sprints during practice. It was good for him, though.

I did it!

I've always wanted to do a marathon and I finally did it. I ran the Mohawk Hudson River Marathon on 10-10-10. I thought that would be a good date to remember. The race began in Schenectady, right by Nick's office, and went along the Mohawk River over to the Hudson River and ended in downtown Albany. My goal was to finish under 4 hours and my official time was 3:58:56. The last 2 miles were really difficult but I fought through it.

I was #1191. The Hudson River in the background.

The New York State Capital (and the beautiful port-o-potties, thanks photographer Nick) in the background.

Drew's 4th

I can't believe my little Drewster is 4! We love this stubborn, independent, fiesty little man. He had a fun enough 4th birthday. No big party, but we did have some friends over to help us celebrate. Our friends, the Oscarson's, that we met in Dubai, moved to New Jersey about a month ago. It has been fun to meet up with them a couple of times in the last few weeks. Their oldest and youngest are the same exact ages as Bret and Drew. They're all born in October of the same years, so they all play well together. Drew got some good presents, his favorite being the aircraft carrier.